GEFS Online (version 0.8)

"GE Flight Simulator" become "GEFS Online". The new address is www gefs-online com

I had to make this change as my domain name was apparently conflicting with "General Electric" interests. If you ever published some material including GEFS link, I would be glad if you could help me maintaining my search engine ranking by updating blog posts, news, etc... with the new URL.

Now for the good news, the name change comes with a new version and plenty of new features:

- Dynamic suspension on all aircraft
- Runway lighting at night
- Concorde, Cessna 152 and Zlin 50
- Aircraft lights
- An aircraft carrier you can take-off from and land onto.
- Reworked flight models - prop wash
- Reworked multiplayer
- Mach indicator
- Flight Path utility in map (thanks to Gustav)
- Gear, flaps, brakes and spoiler indicators
- Smoke effects on touch down
- Multimonitor support (experimental)
- Performance and stability improvements (hopefully)
- Many other little things you probably will not notice but I worked very hard on ;)

Thanks for flying GEFS!

Xavier.

GEFS 0.7.1

I just released a minor update, mostly to fix some bugs but also to push some new features:

- Reverse: the A380 and MD11 are now equipped  with thrust reversal. Keep pressing '-' or 'PageDown' to engage reverse. Hit '0' to reset thrust to neutral.

- Stall alarm: a screen overlay will warn you when you enter stall on every aircraft

- Dynamic air density: lift, drag and engine performance are degraded with increasing altitude. Maximum airspeed will increase as air density decreases. Service ceiling, cruise speed at altitude and rate of climb should respect aircraft specifications but has to be tested more extensively.

- All four runways are used as default starting point so to spread traffic a bit. (runways are randomly picked for the first visit on GEFS)

- Aircraft model packages are optimized to load faster.

- Su35 flight model has been revised to be a bit more gentle and forgiving.

- A380 3D model has been improved.

Have a nice flight!

How did he manage that?

I know the A380 is tricky to fly, but that...

Rolling out version 0.7

It's been a little while since the last release and I have been hard at work at improving the general experience flying GEFS. As the number of users and the complexity of the planes grow, I had to spend some time doing optimization to make sure things keep running smooth. Here is a list of changes in this new version.

- more realistic flight model based on thin airfoil theory (aka. lifting-line theory)
- adjusted all aircraft configuration for a more realistic behavior
- introduction of the "time slider" to set time of the day (enable it from the Weather Option panel)
- added Airbus A380
- added Sukhoi Su-35
- added attitude indicator
- multiplayer has been rewritten (performance) (Reverted: needs more tweaking)

- 3D scene-graph has been rewritten (performance)
- new hosting
- new default airport: LAX
- bug fixes

Have a nice flight!

Xavier.

Choose the Next GEFS Aircraft: Result of the Poll

The poll has now closed and the Airbus A380 is the chosen aircraft. I do not know yet what livery the aircraft will come in but I guess I will leave that up to the artist.

I have no real guidelines for when the aircraft will be ready but will do my best for this to happen by the end of July. Please be patient and keep enjoying GEFS until then.

Thanks to all the participants. And for those whose aircraft have not been chosen, be assured I will add more than just the A380 to GEFS in the future.

Xavier.

Poll: Choose The Next GEFS Aircraft

Based on your suggestions, I made this (very long) poll so we can narrow down the results to just one candidate. Sorry for the huge list but I did not want to leave anybody out. I would like to stress that GEFS is technically limited for now and that simulating complex things like the Shuttle flight and re-entry or making a jetliner interesting to fly (Instruments, VOR NAV, ILS, Hydraulics, and what have you) is not yet achievable. I know there is a lot of demand for "big and fast" but keep in mind you don't fly an A380 as you fly the Piper Cub. That being said, make your selection and click on "Vote".

Some Figures

GEFS is growing and I am happy to share some figures here:
 
32,000 Visits in the last 30 days by 18,000 unique visitors.
10 minutes spent on GEFS per visit on average!
250GB monthly traffic

...and 9 Videos on Youtube ;)

Thanks to all and have a nice flight!